Monthly Archives: April 2016

Hi friends and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. This week I would like to say right off the bat, happy birthday tomorrow to main cast member Hank Azaria. He of course voices many male characters including: Moe Szislak (bar tender at Moe’s Tavern), Comic Book Guy aka Jeffrey Albertson, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (behind the counter and target of being robbed at the Quik-E Mart, Chief Wiggum and many other minor characters. One of his most memorable one time characters is Frank Grimes and he played that part tremendously well and it’s a shame that he was killed off at the end of the episode Homer’s Enemy.

We also get to hear Hank’s real speaking voice from time to time, as mostly minor characters, who are trying to cell something or as a one time character. For example: The schoolteacher Zachary Vaughnn in the season 21 episode Bart Gets A Z. This is when Bart and the rest of his class accidentally gets Mrs. Krabappel fired, by lacing her coffee with booze, because she took their cel-phones away. This was hoped to make her much more laid-back and well, nicer. Obviously, this backfired and she got canned and Mr. von replaced her, for the episode. We find out that he actually has a drinking problem and he declares that he hates children at the end of the episode and is fired. He is heard to be chanting “I hate children, children suck” in the hallway. So, he is gone and Mrs. Krabappel returns, with muffins. For more on the episode you can find it on iTunes.

That is just one example of Hank’s real voice coming out. Another more obvious example is Duffman, when he isn’t referring to himself in the third person and uttering his catch fraise “OH YEAH” he uses his normal voice for the character. An example of this is in the episode Eternal Moonshine Of The Simpson Mind (Season 19) where he hosts Marge’s surprise party for Homer. He does his usual third person reference but his watch alarm goes off. He says “Um, it’s 11:00. Do you wanna pay for the extra hour. Or…” and the party continues when Marge says “okay.” There are many more examples, with and without his own natural dialect. For example: Krusty The Clowns agent is voiced by him in a New York accent. There are many other examples of his voice in the series and I can’t name them all here because there are that many.

Well that’s about it for this weeks post. Check out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website athttp://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again next Sunday

Hi folks. Yes, it’s a Monday and an unusual day for me to post but, I have something to get off my chest. If you are a Canadian cidisen and you use the Canadian iTunes Store and are a fan of The Simpsons and you have purchased the latest season Season 27, you may notice that a couple of episodes have since aired. The last one available on the Canadian iTunes Store was The Marge-Ian Chronicles, which aired on March 13 and was available on Saturday March 19th. This was the last episode which has been available to those of us in Canada, who have purchased the Season Pass. I have checked on Google and all episodes so far are available on the American iTunes Store, Hmmm!

Clearly, something is wrong and I want to know what is going on and why, I am not receiving the episodes in a timely manner. I may not necessarily like every episode but it is important that they become available in a reasonable amount of time, after airing in all iTunes Stores world wide. I have contacted iTunes Support on this issue and nothing so far, has been said about it to me in my email. I certainly hope that this post will get the attention of certain people and that this issue, what ever it is can be resolved quickly.

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. This week’s post is all about the first two seasons of The Simpsons. Obviously, the show was in its infancy and characters were being created, to go alongside all the characters who appeared in the Tracey Ullman Shorts. There were also changes to some of the Simpson family, during this period of the show’s history: in that Bart became more rounded and was not just this bratty 10-year-old. He showed that he does care for his Dad, when he finds out that he only has $13 to spend on Christmas gifts for the family from his earnings as a mall Santa. He gently encourages Homer that they should go home, before they are persuaded to go to the dog track and they get their dog, as we know. Lisa shows her true intelligence and her true feelings on the world, before becoming a vegetarian or converting to another religion.

Obviously, Homer’s voice still had the Walter Matthau sound to it and even Grandpa sounded a bit different too, compared to later seasons. Even characters like: Mr. Burns, Barney and Milhouse sounded a bit different during those years, from 1989 to 1991. Season 1 also saw the introduction to characters like: Nelson Muntz, Apu, Otto Man and Moe, whom Bart would make prank calls to throughout the series.

In Season 2, other characters began to be introduced like: Jeffrey Albertson (aka comic book Guy) and his voice actually got better as the series progressed. At first he spoke with a lisp but the main trade of his, which was his sarcasm was always evident. Even Wralph Wiggum was a bit different in that he wasn’t blurting out his random lines like “my cats breath smells like cat food” yet. He actually sounded more Normal then and wasn’t given a family to live with yet.

Also in Season 2, Homer began to work with a voice which was similar to the one we know today. This is because Dan Castellaneta found the Walter Matthau sound limiting and couldn’t hold the voice through the long recording sessions. He wanted something with more power and the change was complete in Season 3 and the rest is history.

Okay, let’s not forget Krusty The Clown and Sideshow Bob, because they are equally important to the early seasons too. Krusty was already a character when the Tracey Ullman Shorts aired but Sideshow Bob wasn’t yet, at least in a speaking roll. In Season 1, we first heard Kelsey Grammer voice Bob in the episode Krusty Gets Busted and it also established his hatred for Bart, for foiling his plan to completely take over Krusty’s show, while he was in jail. As the series progresses Sideshow Bob became more rounded too, with his own family and by Season 19, all the main components of his family were established, with mostly fellow actors from Frasier voicing family members. If you want to know more, there are many places on the internet where you can trace the evolution of his family, including the Simpsons fan sites.

As for Krusty, we find that he has to ware a pacemaker because of an on air heart attack which we saw during Krusty Gets Busted. We also discover that he is also illiterate. Later on, Krusty’s Father is introduced during Season 3 and he fakes his own death in Season 7.

As for my favourite episodes from those first two seasons, I have some that I will watch again and again such as: Bart The General, Moaning Lisa, Krusty Gets Busted, Bart Gets An F, Lisa’s Substitute, Oh Brother Where Are Thou, Principal Charming, Bart Gets Hit By A Car, among others. So, the first two seasons are a bit ordinary in that the plots and characters are much more conventional and not as silly and surreal as Seasons 3 to 8. However, they are just as important in the timeline of the show, as any other season since then and should never be overlooked.

This Tuesday, it will be 29 years since the Simpson family were first introduced on the Tracey Ullman Show, as shorts. I have mentioned them in previous posts and will probably have something for next year, when it will be the 30th anniversary.

On the birthday front, former Simpsons writer Conan O’Brien turns another year older tomorrow. Of course, he wrote two of the best episodes from Seasons 4 and 5: Marge vs. The Monorail and Homer Goes To College. He even guest starred in the Season 5 episode Bart Gets Famous as himself on his then new late night TV show.

Well that’s about it for this weeks post. Check out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website athttp://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again next Sunday

Hi folks. Yup, it’s a Saturday and unusual for me to post today. But I’ve been thinking about iOS9 and my favourite things about it so far.

I like the new notes option, where you can put notes outside your email and just on your device. In fact, that is how I compose these blog posts for yu each week. I even think the links option is great, if I want to tap on a link to a website I inserted into a note for some reason. Even the attachment browser is a great addition and I have used it to transfer audio files to my Dropbox and to one of my apps, which allows me to store such files.

Another thing I really like is the addition of the Siri voices, when using Voice Over. I like playing with the voices and trying to make them laugh and stuff. TheAmerican female Siri is great for that and to do that I just type in ha-ha. She even breathes after she laughs and even when you just write ah. I don’t know why but I like it and she is a lot of fun to play with.

The other Siri voice I am in love with is the female Austrailian Siri. No, I don’t mean Karen and the Siri voice is actually different from her, in both the accent and vocal range. The Siri voice is a bit deeper and she has more emotion to how she speaks. For example: her voice actually goes up when a question is asked. Karen doesn’t do that and her vocal range is much more restrictive and is not as fun to play with.

I even have the Austrailian female Siri as my default voice for the Austrailian voice, while I use Samantha as the default American voice. I must admit that I actually have a bit of a crush on the Austrailian female Siri too. I wonder who she actually is and it would be really cool to hear her talking naturally and breathing and laughing and, well, you know.

My main point of talking about the Siri voices and their accessibility is that I can make them say and do what ever I want them to. The only thing I can’t make them do is kiss me or make them cry. As for the male voices, well, not much to talk about here and I just use them for reading stuff for me. I mostly use the male US Siri voice to do that, when I feel like it.

As for the rest of iOS9, I am happy with it and everything else is pretty much boring to me and there’s not much else to talk about in a blog. One thing I really should point out is that you can now transfer audiobooks from one device to another, provided that the book is available in your countries iTunes Store. I managed to do that with some of them but not all and hopefully, further fixes will be made to this new feature soon. I actually have some books which I would like to transfer to another device but I can’t because they are not currently available in the Canadian iTunes Store, but were when I bought them last year.

If you have an iOS device and you love or hate iOS9, I’m sure that things will get better when iOS10 comes around in September. That’s about it for this post.

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. Before I get into this weeks post, I want to tie up a loose end from last week. If you have the album Contractual Obligation there is a bit called String, which is track 4 on the CD and the digital download. The bit has two characters: Adrian Wap-Caplit voiced by John Cleese. He is a rather aggressive cellar and will stop at nothing to promote and cell this string. Mr. Simpson voiced by Eric Idle, is a rather mild mannered man who has come to see Mr. Wap-Caplit to help him cell a bunch of string, which he inherited. Unfortunately, the string is only in 3 inch lengths. This is where Mr. Wap-Caplit goes crazy with trying to cell the string and we don’t know what happened in the end, because the bit doesn’t go far enough to reach the conclusion.

Is it any wonder that Eric Idle was asked to voice a character on The Simpsons in 2003? After all, he was a Simpson before The Simpsons. Right?

This week’s post is all about Simon Woosterfield. Okay, in case you don’t know who I am talking about, he appears in the Season 20 episode Double Double Boy In Trouble, when Bart and Simon decide to switch lives. Simon is in a rich family and Bart enjoys it, until he learns that Simon’s siblings are planning to kill him, during a skiing trip. Also, Simon has to put up with Homer’s talking with food in his mouth and his treatment of Bart. Of course, this all comes about as the two boys look exactly alike, but with different dialects.

Watching the episode got me to thinking if Simon became a regular character, the Simpson family would have a rich and possible powerfull ally, if things get out of hand, which always happens. Maybe the Woosterfield’s could invite the Simpson family to their living quarters, similar to how Mr. Burns asked the family to house sit his mansion in the episode The Mantion Family. All though, there could be differences in this potential plot point, in that they would have to travel outside Springfield and Homer would probably take advantage of the cook, similarly to Oh Brother, Where Are Thou? when he constently asks for pork chops.

I don’t know if this will ever come to fruition but I’m sure the writers have idea’s, whether or not to bring Simon and the rest of the Woosterfields family back. It would be nice to see more one time characters being used again, so that Wikipedia article of the list can be shortened.

Well that’s about it for this weeks post. Check out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website athttp://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again next Sunday

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. This week Toronto radio saw the retirement of one and the death of another icon. Wally Crouter had been a main stay at CFRB for about 50 years, from 1946 to 1996. Since then, he retired and would play golf in Florida. He passed away on Monday at the age of 92 and there will be no funeral.

Dave Agar, a long time news man and commentator on CFRB has retired this Thursday, after a 46 year run in radio, mostly at the same company now owned by Bell Media. I enjoyed his News And Views at 7:00 AM during his shift as news caster, from 2009 to last Thursday. I also like that he is also a weather guy and keeps track of it like I try to do on a dayly basis. Thanks Dave for all the years of hearing your voice on the air and you will be certainly missed by me and many others.

This weeks post is about Monty Python and their influence on The Simpsons. The main reason for this is because of their style of comedy, which has of course influenced Matt Groening, among many others including the creators of South Park.
Last weeks birthday boy Eric Idle turned another year older on Monday and guest starred as documentery film maker Declan Desmond. He has guested in episodes from Season 14 onwards, with them giving insite into various characters on the show through his filming of characters in their dayly lives.

As for the influence of Monty Python on the show and me, I think that the episode Homer Goes To College is an example of it. Just listen to some of the dialog early on in the episode after Homer gets to campus and meets the two nerds he gets help from and listen to the Election Special routine on the Live At Drury Lane album.

Of course, all 5 surviving menbers of the troop are going strong and in their 70s. Since Eric guest starred, will others do so in the future? It would be interesting if John Cleese guest starred as a character similar to Basil Fawlty from his sit com Fawlty Towers. My Dad actually was a fan and I came across it by accident back in 1992. I don’t remember all the details but I found a pack of 2 tapes with 4 episodes on 2 tapes. One had the episodes Basil The Rat and The Builders and the other had the episodes Communication Problems and The Hotel Inspectors.

Can you imagine Homer getting into an argument with a character voiced by John Cleese? Better yet, Mr. Burns getting into one. He would probably be either shaken or even more determined then ever to feed his greed after being yelled and screamed at. As for the other Python members, I’m sure they would love to be on The Simpsons, like Eric Idle has been and would probably do it in a second if asked. At least, I hope so.

This week, Simpsonss guest star Alec Baldwin turned another year older. His first and best episode was from Season 10, When You Dish Upon A Star. I love it and he has guested once before but I didn’t like it as much. Never the less, he has done some great work and much continued success.

Well that’s about it for this weeks post. Check out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website athttp://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again next Sunday